1st Official Shoot; JV Bastard

May 19th

We Officially kicked off production today, on May 19th 2009 (Joey Ramones' Birthday, dramatic, huh?). Our 1st interview is JV Bastard who is the bass player for Michale Graves, Gotham Road (Michale's metal project), and Mister Monster (a horror punk band founded by former Empire Hideous member J-Sin Trioxin). We picked to start on JV because of the access he was willing to give and his enthusiasm for being part of the project. He is relatively young so he is giving a current prospective of a hardworking musician in his prime and what he has to go through. Also, given his closeness to Graves and association with Hideous, I figured he had a unique point of view and I can ask a lot of question.... and believe me I came in very over prepared.

JV was an amazing host and we couldn't have started off better. With me was our production assistant Katie, our photo journalist Emily (who is a childhood friend of my girlfriend), and my director of photography Mike Hall (who was fresh off directing his feature film Kids go in the Woods, Kids Get Dead). JV's apartment seemed to be a gathering place for a lot of the guys in the North Jersey, horror rock scene and he had tons of Misfits memorabilia decorating it. We were interrupting their "Uno" night.

JV kicked ass. He was charismatic, positive, and we touched on every aspect of where the film was going. JV spent most of his adult career working with Michale Graves so we spoke a lot about him. At this point Michale Graves and Arturo Vega are the biggest names who have agreed to do an interview. We spent about an hour an a half with JV before wrapping up. I stayed for a couple hours afterwords and we spoke about the Misfits and all the drama involved with that band. JV's former band mate J-Sin Trioxin from Mister Monster and Michale Graves even stopped by. It struck me how different of a guy JV (or myself for that matter) would be if it wasn't for some "silly" punk band who sang about horror films.

The crew was on the ball and I couldn't ask for a better job. Great first official day.